GYC 2013: Before Men and Angels

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

GYC 2013 Morning Devotions

Sikhu Daco

01-Trusting God

This message was presented at the GYC 2013 conference, Before Man and Angels, in Orlando, Florida.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

I'm wondering How many of you guys are from the West Coast?

The entire front section is from the West Coast.

You realize you are here at, what time is it?

Jeff, he came to ask me how he should introduce me and I said don't worry about my last name because I knew he was going to butcher it.

I'm originally from Zimbabwe so I want to say hi to my family if they're watching.

You know, after I got over the initial and subsequent shock from the president of GYC giving me a call to invite me to speak this year, I got really excited about the topic, the great controversy.

I worked for several years as a counselor at secular universities, And I remember giving a Bible study to a group of 4 young ladies.

3 of them were not Adventist and it was a Bible study on the great controversy.

The look on their faces as the reality of what the meta-narrative in the Bible is hit them.

It was like, whoa, the world makes sense kind of look.

And from that moment, I realized that we have truths, we have truths that the world is hungering and thirsting for.

It gives, kind of gives a framework to understand why things are how they are and how the world works and all these things.

And I just came to really love the message of the great controversy.

So I was very excited to be invited to share and praying about what exactly to talk about.

What the Lord impressed me with and what we're gonna do for the next few mornings is to talk about issues in the great controversy.

So not specifically necessarily going through the story of the great controversy, but issues in the great controversy as I've come to experience them in my own life.

So that is what we're going to do in the next few mornings.

Oh, I made a mental note to give a disclaimer.

My friends say that when I get excited about something, that my accent changes.

Since I came to America, I've learned how to roll my R's a little bit more so that Americans can understand me.

Funny story, I went to a restaurant with some friends.

The waitress comes and she's asking, oh, what would you like to drink?

And I said, oh, could I just have a glass of water, please?

I said, oh, a glass of water, as if that would help.

I said, oh, I'm sorry, I don't understand, could you come again?

And my friend had to intervene and he said, oh, she just wants a glass of water.

I said water, W-A-T-E-R, water, and she couldn't understand me.

So I've learned how to, I've tried to roll the word and those kind of things, but Sometimes I forget and the accent becomes more accentuated.

I've said it, you know, so Shoma, if you're out there, forgive me.

All right, let's have a word of prayer again.

This is for my sake and then we'll jump right into the Word of God.

Loving Father, we're privileged to spend time in your Word, to hear you speaking to us through the Holy Spirit.

We invite His presence now so that the time that we spend together here would not be an exercise in futility, but it would be an opportunity for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit so that our lives will be changed.

Father, we recognize that time is short and Jesus is coming soon.

Prepare us to prepare the world for that soon return of Christ.

Turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Luke, chapter 18.

And we're Luke chapter 18, and we're going to read together from verse 1 in Luke chapter 18.

Luke 18 verse 1, I'm reading from the King James Version, not because I have anything against other versions per se, it's just my favorite version to study out of.

Luke 18, verse 1 says, and he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint." And so this parable, we are given already what the goal was in giving this parable.

It was that men ought always to pray and not to faint, meaning that it is possible for men to pray and yet faint.

And this is what Jesus said, that there was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man.

And there was a widow in that city, and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary." So in verse 2, it tells us that there was in a city a man of power.

He was a man who could say things and things happen.

But there's something peculiar about this judge, because usually when you think about public servants, there are people who want to help people.

But this judge was not that kind of a guy.

He was a kind of a power-tripping judge because he wasn't there to help people.

He didn't care about what God said was right or wrong.

He didn't have a particular moral code that he operated under, nor did he regard men, because sometimes people will do the right thing just because they fear God.

They'll treat you well not because they like you, not because they care about you, But because it's the right thing to do.

You know, I was in elementary school, and this is an embarrassing story to tell, but it's the first 1 that comes to mind.

And there was this kid in my class, and he was so annoying, he was so annoying.

Super annoying kid in my class, in elementary school, so I was really young.

But I loved Jesus and I was a Christian even then.

This kid, he would just pester and pester everybody in the class thought he was annoying, okay?

And 1 day he was just getting, he was testing my Christianity.

And the embarrassing thing is I slapped him.

My little sister knows that I struggled with violence when I was young, but the Lord helped me overcome, amen.

I went home that day and the Lord would not give me rest.

And all night, I probably slept a long time, but as a kid, you know, I felt like I didn't sleep at all.

Because I was so stressed out, like, Lord, I shouldn't have done that.

Now, it's so embarrassing to apologize to the annoying kid, right?

Because everybody thinks he's annoying and then I have to apologize.

But I went to school the next day under the conviction of the Holy Spirit And I said, X, I won't mention his name, I am so sorry that I slapped you yesterday.

And I don't know if he was just scared that I'll do it again, but he said, that's okay.

I didn't apologize because I cared about him, but because I feared God, because of my relationship with God, out of obligation, out of duty to God, I went and I gave that apology.

So you understand that sometimes people do things just strictly out of fear for God, not out of love for man.

And sometimes on the other hand, people do things just to look good in front of other people, right?

Will behave in a proper way just so that other people will think we are so awesome.

02-Can God Trust You: Death Before Dishonor

Well, I am excited for the message that we will share this morning.

And the reason I'm excited with apprehension is because this is the message I struggled with the most in preparing So the apprehension is on the struggle part and the excitement is on the struggle part so it's both Why I struggled with it the title of the message this morning is, Can God Trust You, Me?

I'll read to you a quote from Messages to Young People, page 80, paragraph 2.

Choose poverty, reproach, separation from friends, or any suffering rather than to defile the soul with sin.

Death before dishonor or the transgression of God's law should be the motto of every Christian.

And I wrestled with this because I thought there is no way I can present this if this isn't my motto, and I didn't know if that was a challenge I was willing to accept.

So I'm excited with apprehension and I invite you to join me in my apprehensive excitement.

And we'll begin with the word of prayer and delve into the word of God.

Loving Father, we know that you are softly and tenderly calling us to your side, but you're a holy God, and sin cannot coexist with you.

And so you want to cleanse us of sin so that we can be in your presence.

It is our prayer that we would make this commitment as we spend time in your words this morning.

We ask for the presence of the Holy Spirit to bring conviction, to help us to make that decision, clear our minds of the distractions that maybe we may be experiencing, help us to think because some of us are tired already.

At the end of this, may we see Jesus more clearly.

You take your Bibles and turn with me to 1 Samuel.

And we'll read from verse 1, it says, 1 Samuel chapter 13 from verse 1, it says, Saul reigned 1 year, and when he had reigned 2 years over Israel, Saul chose him 3, 000 men of Israel, whereof 2, 000 were with Saul in Michmash, I don't know if it's Michmash or Mich, Michmash, in that place, and in Mount Bethel, and 1, 000 were with Jonathan in Gebeah of Benjamin, and the rest of the people he sent every man to his tent.

So Saul had been 2 years as king, and what he decided to do was to call 3, 000 of the men.

Before this, in the chapter that comes prior to this, the Holy Spirit had come upon Saul because there were people who were in trouble and they needed help.

And Saul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to motivate the people to go out and fight.

They got 330, 000 people, 300, 000 from Israel, 30, 000 from Judah, and they came together and they fought the battle of the Lord, and the Lord triumphed through them.

They said, who, who didn't want Saul as a king?

After they assembled at Gilgal and Samuel, they had an instatement ceremony and they dedicated Saul and afterwards Saul dispersed the people and he called just 3, 000 to stay in his service.

But they hadn't finished fighting the battles of the Lord.

So it was a little preliminary for Saul to have dispersed the people, his army.

And so now they find themselves, Saul has 2, 000 men who, under his watch, and his son Jonathan has 1, 000 men under his watch, which by the way, Jonathan is my favorite Bible character next to Jesus, after Jesus, not next to, after.

When I, I'm a super emotional person, not because I'm a girl, because there are men who are emotional too.

It's just Me as a person, I'm emotional, yeah?

And when I was reading through the Desire of Ages, when I got to the last chapters, my friends will attest to this, it took me like almost a year to finish the last few chapters of Desire of Ages because I was like, I don't want Jesus to die.

I know the story he does, but just going through the experience, I'm like, but if I just keep, if I read slower, I'll just read 1 paragraph a day.

And I cried a lot during that time in my devotions.

1 other person who made me cry as I was having devotions was Jonathan.

I cried every single time I read about when he dies.

It's like so deep for me, you know, because I love Jonathan.

Here's 1 of the reasons why I love Jonathan.

In verse 3, it says, and Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba, and the Philistines heard of it, and Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, let the Hebrews hear.

Jonathan has just 1, 000 men, and they go and they start an attack.

He's not the kind of guy who sits back and he's like, man, I wish people would just fight.

No, he gets up And he's like, let's go fight.

And this is not just picking nitty gritty battles, just fighting for the sake of fighting, right?

Like these are battles that need to be fought.

Actually, when you read the next chapter, it's not with 1, 000 men that he goes to fight.

He just takes his armor-bearer and the 2 of them together.

We need to go and let's pray and see if God would prosper us in this mission So they pray and they say, you know, God will give this sign, and if you answer this way, we'll do this, if you answer that way, we'll do this, and they go, the 2 of them, and put themselves out there, and they say, Lord, use us.

We're all complainers in here because we're Israelites, right?

Spiritual Israel, we have the same problem as the real Israelites had.

Ah, I wish GYC would, bleh, if only the church would, bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh.

We're good at it Because it's so easy to find fault, isn't it?

But it's hard to be the person who gets up and says, I'm not just going to fault find.

God, can you use me to help solve this problem?

And you know what, Jonathan and his armor bearer, when they go in the next chapter, Jonathan says, let's go perchance, because God can save by many or by few.

And so sometimes we sit here and we're waiting for there to be 5, 000 of us to go on outreach at U.S.

How about when there's 2 of you at your church?

Do we stop doing God's work because there's just a handful of us?

Oh, well, God can't do powerful things because it's just me.

Jonathan was a man of action, he was a minute man.

And that's why I cried when he died, I'm like, Jonathan, he's so cool.

But Jonathan gets up and because of his action, because he gets up and does something, Saul is forced to get up and do something as well.

You know, I have never met a pastor in my life.

I've never met or seen or heard of a pastor who gets mad at the church member who is doing evangelism.

I have never seen it in my whole entire life, which is so long.

But I've never seen it, never heard of it.

I don't care if, you know, people say, oh, you know, some people are liberal, some people are conservative.

03-The Sabbath Principle

I'm glad I'm 1 of the first people to say that today because after a while it kind of gets old.

No, no, not that the Sabbath gets old, but you know, I keep saying happy Sabbath all the time.

Several people asked me yesterday, how do you say your name?

Listen very carefully, for I shall say this only once.

My first name actually means we are free.

And I'm thankful for a name like that, especially because I found freedom in Christ, so the name actually means something.

It's my prayer as we're going to start our study this morning that the Holy Spirit would speak to our hearts.

The message that we have for this morning needs some special help from God on my part and I think on all our parts.

So let's bow our heads for a word of prayer and we'll delve into it.

Loving Father, it's a blessing to be here on the Sabbath day.

It's a blessing to be able to worship you.

And Lord, we pray that as we open the word of God, that the Holy Spirit would be our teacher.

Lord, you said that you would send the Holy Spirit and we believe that you already did.

And since we've come into a house of worship we know that you're already here.

We just pray this prayer to open our hearts to receive the word that you have for us and to be blessed by your presence and we pray these things in your name, amen.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 16, Genesis chapter 16 and we're going to start reading from verse 1.

Genesis chapter 16, and we're starting from verse 1.

The Bible says, Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bare him no children.

And she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.

And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing.

It may be that I may obtain children by her.' And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai." Unfortunately in all the stories that I've shared from the Bible, the women are a bad influence.

It's not always like that, I don't think.

And we don't have to be a bad influence, right women?

But unfortunately in this situation, God had given a promise to Abram and Sarai.

God gave us this promise, but clearly he's not fulfilling it through me, so maybe there's something we can do to help God out.

Maybe there's something we can contribute in the fulfillment of the word of God.

Maybe, maybe we can bring something to the table in this situation.

I've heard from my married friends that husbands should always listen to their wives because they're always right.

I say that I'm not married, so I have no, no, It won't affect my life negatively, is what I'm trying to say.

Abraham listens to his wife and he goes into the maid and they have a child and his name is Ishmael.

Chapter 17, verse 15, God comes to Abraham again and he's reiterating the promise that he had already given him earlier.

And in verse 15, God said to Abraham, as for Sarai thy wife thou shalt not call her name Sarai but Sarah shall her name be and I will bless her and give thee a son also of her.

Yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations.

Kings of people shall be of her." God had already initially given the blessing that I'm going to make you a great nation.

And then he said, well, we don't have any kids.

And God said, no, I'm going to bless you with a nation coming from you, Abram.

And then they waited And they said, well, you know, this blessing isn't coming, so maybe we can do something else.

And then he says in verse 17, Abraham fell upon his face and laughed and said in his heart, shall a child be born unto him that is 100 years old?

And shall Sarah that is 90 years old bear?" So Abraham tries to reason with God and he says, oh, that Ishmael might live before thee.

When I said I was going to bless you, Abraham, I meant you corporately, you and your wife are 1 flesh.

So I didn't mean I'm going to bless you through some other woman.

It should be understood because you know that God created man to have 1 woman, so it should be understood and all this time you're still struggling with this and he says no, I'm gonna give you an heir through your wife Sarah.

You see, when God gives a promise, sometimes we try in our own strength to fulfill that promise, whereas God is capable of fulfilling the promises that he gives.

So in Genesis chapter 12, let's go there and read the promise that God gave to Abraham.

Verse 1 it says, and the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee.

And I will make of thee a great nation, I will bless thee, I will make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.

I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that cursed thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him, and Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran.

And he says, okay, here's the deal, Abram.

I'm calling you out to become the father of many nations.

God said, I will be responsible for your future.

I'll be responsible for what happens in your life.

All that I want for you to do is to obey me because you trust me.

And so in Hebrews 11 when it talks about Abraham as a father of faith and it says by faith, Is that me?

The Bible says, by faith, the Bible says, by faith, that Abram went out from his hometown and he sojourned in the land of promise as if he was a stranger.

By faith he obeyed what God was asking him to do, even though he had no clue where he was going to be living, even though God had promised him these things and he wasn't seeing the results of it right there and then, but he did it by faith.

So God says to him, Abraham, look, here's the deal.

And this concept of God being the 1 who determines our lives and who determines our future, it's a hard thing for a lot of us because, you know, we have plans for our lives.

We have, we have, we have the, the, the cookie cutter thing that we want to accomplish and sometimes it's kind of hard to surrender that to God and say, okay, you know what, Lord, all I need to do, all you're asking me to do is to trust and obey you.

That may sound a little extreme, but I mean it.

So my plan is to go to medical school and be a rich doctor, right?

But maybe God says, that's not how I want to use you in my work.

Maybe God wants you to go be a janitor in a conference office.

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GYC 2013 Morning Devotions

02-Can God Trust You: Death Before Dishonor

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Recorded

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Is God Enough?

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